.*— ■ 


AMES 
Defence  of  Oakes  Ames, 


California 

jgional 

^cility 


JD  E  IF1  IE  IDT  C  IE 

OP 


OAKES  AMES 


AGAINST  THE  CHARGE  OF 


Selling  to  Members  of  Congress  Shares  of  the  Capital 
Stock  of  the  Credit  Mobilier  of  America,  with  intent 
to  bribe  said  Members  of  Congress. 


Read  in  the  House  of  Representatives  Feb.  25,  1873. 


Before  the  LTouse  proceeds  to  the  consideration  of  the  reso- 
lution reported  on  Tuesday  last  by  the  special  committee 
charged  with  the  investigation  of  alleged  transactions  with 
certain  members  of  this  body,  in  the  disposition  of  shares  of 
the  capital  stock  of  the  Credit  Mobilier  of  America,  I  desire 
to  submit  the  following  statement : 

The  charges  on  which  said  resolution  is  based  relate  to 
events  so  intimately  connected  with  a  portion  of  the  history  of 
the  construction  of  the  Union  Pacific  railroad  that  I  shall 
ask  the  indulgence  of  the  House  while  I  proceed  to  trace  such 
history  in  greater  detail  than  would  otherwise  be  necessary. 

On  the  1st  day  of  July,  1SG2,  was  passed  and  approved  an 
act  of  Congress,  .authorizing  and  providing  for  the  construc- 
tion of  a  railroad  and  telegraph  line  from  the  Missouri  river 
to  the  Pacific  ocean.  The  practicability  and  importance  of 
such  a  measure  had  long  been  urged  by  our  most  sagacious 
public  men,  but  it  failed  to  receive  the  sanction  of  the  Gov- 
ernment, until  a  great  civil  war  threatened  to  result  in  the 
withdrawal  of  the  States  and  Territories  of  the  Pacific  coast 
from  the  authority  of  the  Federal  Government.  For  a,  variety 
of  reasons,  then  long  before  the  public,  but  chiefly  to  avert 
the  calamity  indicated,  this  act  was  passed.  It  was  universally 
esteemed  not  only  a  measure  of  sound  policy,  but  a  scheme 
appealing  to  the  patriotism  and  loyalty  of  the  capitalists  of 


the  United  States,  as  the  instrument  whereby  a  future  separa- 
tion of  the  Pacific  from  the  Atlantic  States  would  be  rendered 
forever  impossible. 

The  meeting  of  commissioners  named  in  the  act  to  carry 
the  same  into  effect  by  the  organization  of  the  corporation 
was  held  pursuant  to  act  of  Congress  on  the  first  Tuesday  of 
September,  1862.  Though  composed  of  a  great  number  of 
the  leading  capitalists  of  the  country,  and  in  addition  to  the 
ordinary  inducement  of  pecuniary  advantage,  acting  under  the 
stimulus  of  patriotic  ardor,  the  meeting  failed  to  accomplish 
anything  beyond  the  opening  of  books  of  subscription.  Not 
a  dollar  of  stock  was  subscribed  or  promised,  and  it  was  not 
until  about  the  27th  of  October,  1863 — and  then  only  with 
the  explicit  understanding  on  the  part  of  the  subscribers  that 
in  case  of  failure  to  secure  future  legislation  the  project  must 
be  abandoned — that  a  sufficient  subscription  was  obtained  to 
authorize  the  election  of  a  board  of  directors.  On  this  sub- 
scription was  the  name  of  no  recognized  capitalist.  Parties 
known  to  the  country  as  wielding  large  capital  in  railroad  en- 
terprises had  studiously  avoided  all  apparent  association  with 
the  enterprise,  and  in  their  place  appeared  a  class  of  com 
paratively  unknown  men,  whose  names,  when  rising  to  the  sur- 
face, had  been  chiefly  connected  with  enterprises  involving 
speculative  and  extra-hazardous  risks.  Until  the  passage  of 
the  law  heretofore  mentioned,  nothing  was  done  under  this 
organization  beyond  such  acts  as  were  necessary  to  preserve 
the  existence  of  the  corporation. 

Then  came  the  act  of  July  2,  1864.  Its  principal  features 
were  as  follows:  It  authorized  a  reduction  of  the  par  value 
of  the  shares  from  one  thousand  to  one  hundred  dollars,  with 
a  corresponding  increase  in  number;  it  enlarged  the  land 
grant  from  a  ten  to  a  twenty-mile  limit ;  it  authorized  the 
company  to  issue  first  mortgage  bonds  on  its  railroad  and  tele- 
graph, to  an  amount  per  mile  equal  to  the  amount  of  United 
States  bonds  authorized  to  be  issued  to  the  company  in  aid  of 
the  construction  of  the  road,  and  made  the  mortgage  securing 
the   same   a   lien  prior   to  that  of  the   United  States;  it  de- 


clared  that  only  one-half  of  the  compensation  for  services  ren- 
dered  for  the  Government  should  be  required  to  be  applied 
to  the  payment  of  the  bonds  issued  by  the  Government  in  aid 
of  construction.  While  thus  strengthening  the  company  by 
these  changes,  Congress  at  the  same  lime  and  in  the  same  act 
dealt  it  two  veil  nigh  fatal  blows,  from  the  effect  of  which 
complete  recovery  is  impossible.  It  authorized  the  Kansas 
Pacific,  which  was  required  to  effect  a  junction  with  tlie 
Union  Pacific  not  farther  west  than  the  one-hundredth  meri- 
dian of  longitude — a  distance  of  about  247  miles  west  of  the 
Missouri  river — to  make  such  connection  at  any  point  west- 
wardly  of  such  initial  point  deemed  practicable  or  desirable. 
The  result  is  a  rival  parallel  road  connecting  with  the  Union 
Pacific  at  a  point  516  miles  west  of  the  Missouri  river — being 
one-half  the  length  of  that  road — and  claiming  equal  advan- 
tages and  facilities  in  all  running  connections  and  interchange 
of  business.-  It  likewise  provided  that  in  case  the  Central  Pa- 
cific should  reach  the  eastern  boundary  of  California  before 
the  Union  Pacific  should  be  built  to  that  point,  the  former 
company  should  have  the  right  to  extend  its  road  150  miles 
eastward,  and  this  power  was  afterwards  enlarged  by  Congress 
by  act  of  July  2,  18G6,  so  as  to  authorize  such  extension  in- 
definitely, until  the  two  roads  should  meet.  Thus  by  act  of 
Congress  these  two  corporations  were  sent  forth  upon  a  "race 
across  the  continent,  which  finally  culminated  in  the  construc- 
tion of  five  hundred  miles  of  road  by  each  company  in  a  sin- 
gle season,  through  a  desert  country,  upon  a  route  beset  by 
unparalleled  obstacles,  and  at  a  necessary  cost  largely  in  ex- 
cess of  the  most  extravagant  estimates. 

It  is  in  testimony  before  a  committee  of  the  House  that 
after  the  impracticability  of  building  the  road  under  the  first 
act  had  been  demonstrated,  when  it  had  become  apparent  that 
additional  aid  was  necessary  to  induce  capitalists  to  embark 
in  the  enterprise,  the  late  President  Lincoln  was  urgent  that 
Congress  should  not  withhold  the  additional  assistance  asked, 
and  that  he  personally  advised  the  officers  of  the  company  to 
go  to  Congress  for  such  legi slat  ion  as  would  assure  the  success 


of  the  enterprise,  declaring  it  a  national  necessity,  and  recom- 
mending them  to  apply  for  additional  concessions,  ample  to 
place  the  construction  of  the  road  beyond  a  peradventure. 

Notwithstanding  this  favorable  legislation,  no  capital  was 
attracted,  no  additional  stock  subscribed.  On  the  8th  of  Au- 
gust, 18G4,  a  contract  for  building  one  hundred  miles,  west 
from  the  Missouri  river  was  let  to  IT.  M.  Iloxic,  the  only  con- 
tractor offering  to  undertake  so  hazardous  a  venture.  Six 
months  demonstrated  his  inability  to  perform  his  contract,  and 
with  the  experience  of  the  company  in  dealing  with  individual 
contractors,  no  course  seemed  open  except  to  seek  a  consoli- 
dation of  personal  means  into  a  corporate  body,  whereby  the 
pecuniary  ability  of  a  large  number  of  persons  might  be  made 
available  to  the  task  of  constructing  the  road,  while  at  the 
same  time  enjoying  the  shelter  of  corporate  liability  only.  Ac- 
cordingly, by  a  contract  made  March  15,  18G5,  the  Credit 
Mobilier  of  America,  a  corporation  created  by  and  organized 
under  the  laws  of  Pennsylvania,  in  substance,  assumed  the  ob- 
ligations of  the  Hoxie  contract  and  entered  upon  its  perform- 
ance. It  was  soon  manifest  that  even  this  organization,  as 
then  constituted,  would  be  unable  to  accomplish  the  work  for 
which  it  was  created.  The  state  of  the  country  and  the  pecu- 
liar local  conditions  surrounding  the  enterprise  were  exceed- 
ingly unfavorable  to  a  successful  prosecution  of  the  work. 
Gold  was  one  hundred  and  fifty;  there  was  no  market  for  the 
first  mortgage  bonds ;  and  the  Government  bonds,  payable  in 
currency,  were  of  uncertain  value  and  of  difficult  sale.  No 
eastern  railroad  connection  existed  whereby  the  vast  amount  of 
material  essential  to  construction  could  find  reasonable  and. 
rapid  transportation  to  the  line  of  the  road ;  it  was  compelled, 
instead,  to  follow  the  long  and  tedious  route  of  the  Missouri 
river,  at  an  extraordinary  cost  for  transportation,  and  without. 
insurance  against  the  perils  of  the  hazardous  navigation  of. 
that  treacherous  stream.  All  materials  were  high,  and  all 
classes  of  labor  scarce,  and  only  to  be  obtained  in  limited  quan- 
tities at  extravagant  prices.  Add  to  this  the  universal  dis- 
trust in  financial  circles  of  the  ultimate  completion  of  the  road, 


and  the  general  conviction  that  when  completed  it  would  fail 
to  prove  remunerative  or  profitable,  and  it  is  easy  to  anticipate 
the  result  which  speedily  followed,  viz:  the  practical  failure  of 

the  new  organization  to  carry  forward  the  work  until  rein- 
forced by  a  new  class  of  capitalists,  bringing  with  them  larger 
means  and  a  more  powerful  influence  in  the  financial  world. 

Early  in  September,  1865,  it  became  manifest  that  the  con- 
tract could  not  be  performed,  and  that  the  work  must  stop  un- 
less additional  strength  could  be  imparted  to  the  corporation. 
Accordingly,  after  urgent  solicitation  and  long  consideration. 
myself  and  others  associated  with  me  for  the  lirst  time  took 
an  interest  in  the  organization.  Its  capital  stock  was  in- 
creased, additional  money  was  raised,  and  the  work  went  for- 
ward. Under  this  arrangement  two  hundred  and  forty-seven 
miles  of  road  were  built,  when  on  the  10th  day  of  August, 
1867,  it  was  superceded  by  the  Oakes  Ames  contract,  so  called, 
and  this  contract  was  on  the  15th  day  of  October,  1867,  as- 
signed to  seven  persons  as  trustees,  and  under  it  six  hundred 
and  sixty-seven  miles  of  road  were  built. 

The  alleged  corrupt  transactions  imputed  to  me  are  all  charged 
to  have  been  initiated  in  December,  1867.  Glance  for  a  mo- 
ment at  the  situation  of  the  Union  Pacific  Company  and  my 
connection  with  it  at  that  time.  After  a  long  and  nearly  in- 
effectual struggle,  the  final  construction  of  the  road  had  been 
assured  by  my  intervention  in  its  affairs.  No  one  doubted 
that  it  would  be  rapidly  pushed  to  completion.  Congress  had 
long  before,  and  not  at  my  instance,  enacted  the  laws  tender- 
ing inducements  to  the  capitalists  of  the  country  to  embark  in 
the  construction  of  the  road,  and  I  and  my  associates  accepted 
its  offers  and  undertook  the  work.  The  company  had  no  reason 
to  apprehend  unfriendly  or  hostile  legislation,  for  every  de- 
partment of  the  Government  manifested  a  friendly  attitude. 
and  the  whole  countiywas  loud  in  demonstrations  of  approval 
of  the  energy  and  activity  which  we  had  infused  into  the  en- 
terprise. Heads  of  departments  and  Government  officials  of 
every  grade  whose  duties  brought  them  in  contact  with  the 
affairs  of  the  company  were  clamorous  for  increased  speed  of 


6 

construction,  and  never  lost  an  opportunity  of  expressing  ap- 
proval of  the  work  and  urging  it  forward.  It  had  never  en- 
tered my  mind  that  the  company  would  ask  for  or  need  addi- 
tional legislation,  and  it  would  have  heen  difficult  to  find  a 
man  so  reckless  of  popular  opinion  as  to  have  lent  himself  to 
a  crusade  against  an  organization  whoso  praises  everywhere 
filled  the  press  and  were  on  the  lips  of  the  people. 

As  a  matter  of  history,  no  legislation  at  all  affecting  the 
pecuniary  interests  of  the  company  was  asked  for  for  three 
years  and  a  half  after  the  date  of  the  alleged  sales  by  me  of 
Credit  Mobilier  stock,  and  then  only  in  settlement  of  a  purely 
judicial  question  suddenly  and  without  warning  sprung  upon  it, 
in  a  critical  period  of  its  fortunes,  and  in  relation  to  which  no 
controversy  had  ever  before  been  made.  Under  no  other  stato 
of  affairs  and  in  no  other  attitude  of  the  Government  could  I 
tor  a  moment  have  been  induced  to  assume  the  enormous  re- 
sponsibility entailed  by  a  contract  involving  a  liability  of  forty- 
seven  millions  of  dollars.  To  undertake  the  construction  of  a 
railroad  at  any  price  for  a  distance  of  nearly  seven  hundred 
miles,  in  a  desert  and  unexplored  country,  its  line  crossing 
three  mountain  ranges  at  the  highest  elevations  yet  attempted 
on  this  continent,  extending  through  a  country  swarming  with 
hostile  Indians,  by  whom  locating  engineers  and  conductors 
of  construction  trains  were  repeatedly  killed  and  scalped  at 
their  work — upon  a  route  destitute  of  water,  except  as  supplied 
by  water  trains  hauled  from  one  to  one  hundred  and  fifty 
miles  to  thousands  of  men  and  animals  engaged  in  construe- 
tion — the  immense  mass  of  material,  iron,  ties,  lumber,  timber, 
provisions,  and  supplies  necessary,  to  be  transported  from  five 
hundred  to  fifteen  hundred  miles — I  admit  might  well,  in  the 
light  of  subsequent  history  and  the  mutations  of  opinion,  be 
regarded  as  the  freak  of  a  madman,  if  it  did  not  challenge  the 
recognition  of  a  higher  motive,  namely,  the  desire  to  connect 
my  name  conspicuously  with  the  greatest  public  work  of  the 
present  century.  It  is  by  no  means  strange  that  my  credit 
with  conservative  financiers  like  Governor  Washburn  should 
have  been  shaken,  and  that  he  should  have  hastened  to  call  in 


loans  which  in  his  judgment  this  contract  proved  to  be  in  un- 
safe hands. 

Under  these  circumstances,  with  all  legislation  sought 
granted,  and  no  future  action  of  Congress  to  be  asked  for  or 
feared,  it  is  charged  that  I  "  have  been  guilty  of  selling  to 
members  of  Congress  shares  of  stuck  in  the  Credit  Mobilier 
of  America  for  prices  below  the  true  value  of  such  stock,  with 
intent  to  influence  the  votes  and  decisions  of  such  members  in 
matters  to  be  brought  before  Congress  for  action." 

If  this  charge  is  true,  it  is  predicated  upon  three  facts,  all 
of  which  should  be  shown  to  the  satisfaction  of  this  body,  in 
order  to  justify  the  extreme  measures  recommended  by  the 
committee. 

First.  The  shares  must  have  been  sold  at  prices  so  niani- 
and  palpably  below  the  true  value  as  to  conclusively 
presume  the  expectation  of  some  other  pecuniary  advantage 
in  addition  to  the  price  paid. 

Second.  The  shares  must  have  been  of  such  a  nature  as  that 
their  ownership  would  create  in  the  holder  a  corrupt  pin-pose 
to  shape  legislation  in  the  interest  of  the  seller. 

Third.  Some  distinct  and  specific  matter  or  thing  to  be 
brought  before  Congress,  and  on  which  the  votes  and  decisions 
of  members  are  sought  to  be  influenced,  should  be  alleged  and 
proved. 

It  is  by  no  means  clear  from  the  testimony  that  the  stock 
was  sold  at  a  price  less  than  its  true  value.  It  was  not  on  the 
market ;  it  had  no  market  value.  Unlike  an  ordinary  mar- 
ketable commodity,  it  had  no  current  price,  and  the  amount 
for  which  it  could  be  sold  depended  upon  the  temperament 
of  the  buyer,  and  his  inclination  to  assume  extraordinary 
risks  on  the  one  hand,  or  his  tendency  to  conservative  and 
strictly  solid  investments  on  the  other.  It  is  in  proof  be- 
fore a  committee  of  this  House,  by  witnesses  largely  interested 
in  railroad  construction  and  operation,  and  of  great  financial 
ability  and  strength,  that  when  this  stock  was  offered  to  them 
at  par,  it  was  instantly  declined  by  reason  of  the  enormous 
risks  involved  in  the  enterprises  on  which  its  value  depended. 


These  capitalists  believed  that  all  the  capital  invested  in  the 
stock  was  jeopardized,  and  the  venture  was  declined  on  the 
rule  that  no  promise  of  profit  justifies  a  prudent  man  in  em- 
barking in  any  enterprise  in  which  all  the  capital  invested  is 
liable  to  be  sunk.  Apart  from  some  proof  that  a  small  amount 
of  this  stock  changed  hands  between  persons  addicted  to  specu- 
lation at  about  one  hundred  and  fifty,  nothing  is  shown  in 
reference  to  its  value  except  that  it  was  not  on  the  market, 
and  had  no  ascertained  price.  To  overturn  the  presumption  of 
innocence  and  substitute  the  conclusive  imputation  of  guilt 
from  the  simple  fact  of  such  a  transaction  occurring  between 
men  who  had  long  maintained  the  most  friendly  personal  re- 
lations— of  whom  nothing  was  asked,  and  by  whom  nothing 
was  promised — is  to  overturn  all  the  safeguards  afforded  per- 
son and  property  by  the  common  law,  and  in  lieu  thereof  es- 
tablish an  inquisitorial  code,  under  which  no  man's  reputation 
is  safe. 

It  has  been  assumed  that  the  ownership  of  Credit  Mobiliei 
stock  necessarily  created  in  the  holder  a  personal  and  pecuni- 
ary interest  in  procuring  Congressional  legislation  favorable 
to  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  Company,  or  preventing  legis- 
lation adverse  to  it.  At  the  date  of  the  alleged  distributioE 
of  Credit  Mobilier  stock,  the  Oakes  Ames  contract  had  beer 
made  and  was  in  progress  of  execution.  It  was  completed, 
and  the  road  covered  by  the  contract  turned  over  to  the  com- 
pany about  the  close  of  the  year  1868.  Not  until  two  yeara 
after  was  any  legislation  asked  for  by  the  company,  and  then 
it  was  such  as  arose  out  of  exigencies  presented  by  the  action 
of  the  Government  in  reversing  a  long-continued  and  uniform 
previous  policy,  which  could  not,  by  any  possibility,  have 
been  foreseen  or  anticipated.  The  stock  depended  for  its  value 
upon  the  connection  of  the  Credit  Mobilier  with  the  Oakes 
Ames  contract,  which  was  simply  in  the  capacity  of  a  guar- 
antor of  its  execution,  whereby  a  certain  class  of  its  stock- 
holders became  entitled  to  participate  in  the  profits  of  that 
contract  in  money.  There  is  no  provision  of  the  Oakes  Ames 
contract,  the  assignment   thereof,  or  of  the  triplicate  agree- 


merit,  whereby  a  stockholder  became  entitled  to  any  of  the 
securities  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  Company,  or  in  any  way 
interested  in  their  value.  The  profits  derived,  if  any,  were  to  be, 
and  were,  in  cash.  When  the  Oakes  Ames  contract  was  com- 
pleted, and  the  consideration  thereof  divided  in  cash  to  the 
several  parties  entitled,  in  due  proportion,  the  interest  of  a 
holder  of  Credit  Mobilier  stock  in  the  Union  Pacific  Rail- 
road Company,  and  everything  pertaining  to  it,  was  at  an  end. 
In  other  words,  the  stipulations  of  that  contract  and  the  cash 
profits  derivable  therefrom  were  the  end  and  the  begin- 
ning— the  centre  and  circumference — the  absolute  measure  of 
the  pecuniary  interest  of  a  holder  of  Credit  Mobilier  stock  in 
18G8.  To  say  that  the  Washburne  bill,  which  professed  to 
deal  exclusively  with  the  operation  of  the  road  in  the  hahds 
of  the  company  after  it  had  been  built  and  turned  over  by 
the  contractors,  was  a  measure  feared,  and  to  protect  the  rail- 
road company  against  which  the  stock  in  question  was  sold  to 
members  of  Congress,  seems  to  me  to  invoke  the  last  extreme 
of  credulity. 

It  is  impossible  to  impute  to  me  the  purpose  to  corruptly 
.influence   members  of  Congress  by  conferring  upon  them  . 
•euniary  benefit  without  adequate  consideration,  unless  the  ben- 
efit conferred  is  of  such  a  character  as  to  necessarily  create  an 
inclination  to  aid  the  donor  to  the  detriment   of  the  public. 
There  is  but  one  escape  from  this  position,  and  that  leads  to  a 
lower  deep.     It  may  be  said   that  the  giving  by  any  person 
and  the  receiving  by  a  member  of  Congress  of  any  gratuity 
whatever,  or,  what  is  identical  therewith,  selling  and  buying 
at  an  inadequate  price,  imports  corruption  in  both    the  giver 
and  receiver,  the  buyer  and  seller.     Whoever  proclaims  thi^ 
doctrine  should  instantly  set  on  foot  the  inquiry  how  many 
railroad  presidents  and   superintendents   have   presented   to 
members  of  Congress  the  value  of  transportation  over  their 
ctive  railroad  lines,  and  by   whom  the  same  have  l> 
sived,  to  the  end  that  justice  may  be  done,  and  the  one 
presented  for  indictment  and  the  other  for  expulsion.     The 
dimensions  and  value  of  the  gratuity  have  nothing  to  do  with 
tiie  question.     There  is  no  middle  ground  on  which  to  stand. 


10 

For  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  any  tribunal  this  body 
has  before  it  an  alleged  offender  without  an  offence.  Any  per- 
son accused  in  the  courts  of  the  country,  under  like  circum- 
stances, might  well,  when  called  upon  to  plead  to  the  indict- 
ment, insist  that  it  failed  to  charge  a  crime.  I  am  charged  by 
the  committee  with  the  purpose  of  corrupting  certain  members 
of  Congress,  while  it,  at  the  same  time,  declares  said  members 
to  have  been  unconscious  of  my  purpose,  and  fails  to  indicate 
the  subject  of  the  corruption.  In  other  words,  the  purpose  to 
corrupt  is  inferred,  where  the  effect  of  corrupting  could  not 
by  possibility  be  produced,  and  where  no  subject  for  corrup- 
tion existed.  No  lawyer  who  values  his  reputation  will  assert 
that  an  indictment  for  bribery  could  stand  for  an  instant  in  a 
common  law  court  without  specifically  alleging  who  was  the 
briber,  who  was  bribed,  and  what  precise  measure,  matter,  or 
thing  was  the  subject  of  bribery.  There  can  be  no  attempt 
to  bribe  without  the  hope  and  purpose  of  corruptly  influencing 
some  person  or  persons  in  respect  to  some  particular  act.  Until, 
therefore,  it  is  alleged  and  shown  not  only  who  tendered  a 
bribe,  but  who  accepted  or  refused  it,  and  what  was  the  spe- 
cific subject-matter  of  the  bribery,  any  conviction  which  may 
follow  the  alleged  offence  must  rest  upon  the  shifting  and  un- 
stable foundation  of  individual  caprice,  and  not  upon  the  solid 
rock  of  justice  administered  under  the  restraints  of  law. 

I  shall  not  enter  upon  a  discussion  of  the  jurisdiction  of 
this  body  over  offences  alleged  to  have  been  committed  dur- 
ing a  previous  Congress,  leaving  that  question  for  such  addi- 
tional comment  as  the  lawyers  of  the  House  choose  to  make. 
The  position,  however,  that  the  fault — if  such  exists — is  a 
continuing  offence,  is  so  extraordinary  and  fruitful  of  such  fa- 
tal consequences  that  I  cannot  forbear  a  reference  to  it.  Since 
the  Credit  Mobilier  stock  sold  by  me  passed  into  the  hands  of 
the  several  members  of  Congress  referred  to  in  the  report,  I 
have  been  in  the  judgment  of  the  committee  a  perpetual  and 
chronic  offender  against  the  dignity  and  honor  of  the  House,  and 
so  far  as  my  own  volition  is  concerned,  must  so  continue  to 
the  end  of  the  world.     So  long  as  a  single  share  of  this  stock 


11 

shall  not  be  restored,  but  shall  remain  in  the  hands  of  the  seve- 
ral receivers,  or  cither  or  any  of  them,  my  offence  goes  on, 
and  I  am  bereft  of  the  power  to  stop  it.  And  yet,  notwith- 
standing the  world  is  now  apprised  of  my  alleged  corrupt  in- 
tentions— and  no  member  of  Congress  can  be  ignorant  ot 
them — the  parties  who  alone  have  the  power  but  fail  to  rel< 
me  from  the  necessity  of  continuing  my  offences  by  return  oi 
the  stock,  are  themselves  without  blame,  and  in  no  way  ob- 
noxious 1"  tin'  sins  laid  upon  me.  The  committee  declare  that 
want  of  knowledge  alone  of  the  corrupt  intention  of  the  seller 
excused  the  buyer,  while  holding  and  owning  the  proceeds  of 
the  sale.  Now  that  such  knowledge  is  everywhere  and  among 
all  men,  how  van  this,  in  the  absence  of  a  restoration  of  the 
stock  or  its  proceeds,  bo  a  living,  continuing,  perpetual  crime 
in  the  seller  and  not  in  the  buyer  \ 

I  beg  t<>  be  correctly  understood \  1  allcdge  nothing 
against  those  members  of  the  House  who  purchased  Credit 
Mobilier  stock.  1  am  simply  following  the  reasoning  of  the 
committee  to  its  logical  results.  I  make  no  assault  upon  any 
man  or  class  of  men,  but  I  mo.-t  earnestly  protest  against 
being  chosen  fho  victim  of  a  line  of  reasoning  and  assertion, 
in  my  judgment,  unjust,  partial,  unsound,  inconsistent,  and  in- 
conclusive— calculated,  if  endorsed,  to  bring  this  body  into 
disrepute,  and  repugnant  to  the  sense  of  justice  and  fair  play 
imbedded  in  the  hearts  of  the  American  people.  < 

.Reference  is  made  by  the  committee  to  the  act  of  February 
26,  1863,  and  after  setting  oul  the  same,  the  following  lan- 
guage is  used  :  "  In  the  judgment  of  the  committee,  the  facts 
reported  in  regard  to  Mr.  Ames  and  Mr.  Brooks  would  have 
justified  their  conviction  under  the  above-recited  statute  and 
subjected  them  to  the  penalties  therein  provided."  I  beg  gen- 
tlemen to  note  the  entire  section  carefully  and  critically,  and 
verify  the  assertion  i  now  make  that  every  penalty  denounced 
upon  him  who  shall  "  promise,  offer,  or  give,  or  cause  or  pro- 
cure to  be  promised,  offered,  or  given'*  *  *  *  "any  val- 
uable thing"  *  "  to  any  member  of  Congress  "  *  *  * 
"  with  intent   to  influence  his  vote  on   any  matter  pending  or 


12 

to  be  brought  before  him,"  is  alike  launched  with  impartial  se- 
verity against  any  member,  officer,  or  person  who  shall  in  any 
wise  accept  or  receive  the  same,  not  knowingly,  wilfully,  or 
feloniously  receive  the  same,  but  in  anywise  accept  or  receive 
the  same.  Mark  the  language:  "  And  the  member,  officer,  or 
person  who  shall  in  anywise  accept  or  receive  the  same,  or 
any  part  thereof,  shall  be  liable  to  an  indictment  as  for  a  high 
crime  and  misdemeanor,  and  shall,  upon  conviction  thereof,  be 
fined  not  exceeding  ten  times  the  amount  so  offered,  promised, 
or  given,  and  imprisoned  in  a  penitentiary  not  exceeding  ten 
years." 

Again  I  protest  against  the  conclusion  of  the  committee, 
which  makes  this  unequal,  partial,  and  discriminating  allot- 
ment of  the  penalties  of  a  statute  designed  by  its  framers  im- 
partially to  strike  or  shelter  all  to  whom  it  applies.  "Whatever 
result  may  be  reached  here,  none  can  doubt  that  in  the  courts 
of  the  country  there  will  be  one  law  for  all. 

Aside,  then,  from  the  letters  addressed  to  Mr.  McComb,  it 
is  impossible  to  infer  the  motives  attributed  to  me  by  the  com- 
mittee. Mr.  McComb  claimed  that  about  $20,000  of  the 
825,000  of  stock  voted  me  to  fulfil  my  obligations  to  my 
friends  should  be  given  to  him  for  distribution  to  his  friends, 
and  the  letters  to  him  were  written  to  show  that  I  was  selling 
the  stock  in  small  quantities  to  my  friends,  and  could  not 
give  his  friends  the  entire  amount  they  desired.  A  perfect 
understanding  of  the  circumstances  under  which  these  let- 
ters were  written,  and  a  candid  consideration  of  their  object 
and  purpose,  must,  I  think,  carry  to  any  unbiased  mind 
the  conviction  that  my  motives  were  very  far  from  those 
ascribed  to  me.  Mr.  Durant,  Mr.  McComb,  and  myself,  were 
each  anxious  to  secure  as  large  a  portion  as  possible  of  the 
shares  of  Credit  Mobilier  stock,  and  professedly  for  the  same 
purpose,  namely  :  for  disposition  to  those  persons  with  whom, 
from  past  favors  or  personal  friendship,  we  were  willing  to 
share  opportunities  of  profitable  investment.  I  had  no  desire 
or  expectation  to  further  enrich  myself,  for  my  sole  object  was 
to  get  and  retain  as  much  of  this  stock  as  possible  to  be  used 


13 

in  redeeming  obligations  of  the  character  named.  Theso 
obligations  had  been  incurred  not  only  to  members  of  Con- 
gress, but  to  many  private  citizens  in  no  way  connected  with 
official  life;  they  had  been  contracted  early  in  the  year  1867, 
when  the  stock  could  not  be  sold  above  par,  and  it  was  to 
meet  these  contracts  that  I  made  special  efforts  to  obtain  the 
stock.  In  doing  so,  I  took  it,  not  for  my  individual  use,  hut 
as  trustee,  for  the  sole  purpose  of  conveying  it  to  the  parties 
entitled,  and  it  would  have  been  a  breach  of  faith  in  me  to 
have  asked  or  taken  a  price  in  excess  of  the  par  value,  not- 
withstanding it  may  have  in  the  meantime  advanced.  No  dis- 
tinction was  made  between  members  of  Congress  and  unoffi- 
cial friends,  and  in  performing  the  obligations  I  had  incurred 
I  sold  to  both  alike  stock  at  its  par  value,  in  accordance 
with  my  agreement.  When,  therefore,  Mr.  McComb  objected 
to  my  "receiving  so  large  an  amount,  and  entered  upon  a 
struggle  to  prevent  it,  I  naturally  addressed  to  him  such 
arguments  and  considerations  as  in  my  judgment  would 
make  the  deepest  impression  upon  his  mind.  It  so  hap- 
pened that,  in  the  prosperity  and  success  of  the  Union 
Pacific  Railroad  Company,  Mr.  McComb  and  myself  had  a 
common  and  identical  interest,  and  I  therefore  urged  upon 
him  that  I  had  so  disposed  of  the  stock  as  to  enhance  the  gen- 
eral strength  and  influence  of  the  company,  for  whose  welfare 
his  solicitude  was  not  less  than  my  own.  It  is  no  sufficient 
answer  to  this  to  say  that  the  statement  contained  in  the  let- 
ters on  which  1  most  relied  to  influence  his  mind  I  now  con- 
cede contained  expressions  liable  to  be  construed  against  the 
purity  of  my  motives.  Tried  by  the  test  of  casual  and  confi- 
dential letters,  often  written  hastily  and  under  circumstances 
and  surroundings  entirely  different  from  those  in  the  light  of 
which  they  are  interpreted — framed  for  a  specific  purpose,  and 
to  accomplish  a  particular  end — their  collateral  and  incidental 
bearings  not  reflected  upon  and  deliberately  weighed,  but 
flung  off  hastily  in  the  instant  press  of  business- and  the  free- 
dom of  that  personal  confidence  ordinarily  existing  between 
parties  jointly  concerned  in  financial   schemes  or  enterprises 


14 

of  public  improvement,  he  would,  indeed,  be  a  cautious,  a  pru- 
dent, a  wise,  and  almost  perfect  man,  who  could  emerge  from 
such  an  ordeal  completely  free  from  the  suspicion  of  fault. 

I  wish,  therefore,  to  declare,  in  the  broadest  sense  of  which 
language  is  capable,  that  in  writing  the  McComb  letters  I  had 
alone  in  view  the  objects  above  enumerated;  that  I  never  for 
an  instant  imagined  that  from  them  could  be  extracted  proof 
of  the  motive  and  purpose  of  corrupting  members  of  Con- 
gress— motives  and  purposes  which  I  solemnly  declare  I  never 
entertained.  The  insignificant  amounts  of  stock  sold  to  each 
member  with  whom  I  had  dealings ;  the  proven  fact  that  I 
never  urged  its  purchase,  and  the  entire  lack  of  secrecy — ordi- 
narily the  badge  of  evil  purposes — in  these  transactions,  ought, 
in  my  judgment,  to  stand  as  a  conclusive  refutation  of  the  of- 
fences charged,.  And  above  and  beyond  this,  I  submit  that 
a  long  and  busy  life  spent  in  the  prosecution  of  business  pur- 
suits, honorable  to  myself  and  useful  to  mankind,  and  a  repu- 
tation hitherto  without  stain,  should  of  its  own  weight  overcome 
and  outweigh  charges  solely  upheld  by  the  unconsidered  and 
unguarded  utterances  of  confidential  business  communications. 

A  vast  amount  of  error  has  been  disseminated  and  preju- 
dice aroused  in  the  minds  of  many  by  incorrect  and  extrava- 
gant statements  of  the  profits  accruing  from  the  different 
contracts  for  the  construction  of  the  road,  and  especially  that 
commonly  known  as  the  Oakes  Ames  contract.  The  risk, 
the  state  of  the  country,  the  natural  obstacles,  the  inflation  of 
the  currency  and  consequent  exorbitant  prices  of  labor  and 
material,  the  Indian  perils,  the  unparalleled  speed  of  construc- 
tion and  the  clamorous  demands  of  the  country  for  speedy 
completion,  seem  to  be  forgotten,  and  the  parties  connected  with 
the  Credit  Mobilier  and  the  construction  of  the  road  are  now 
to  be  tried  by  a  standard  foreign  to  the  time  and  circumstan- 
ces under  which  the  work  was  done.  It  is  said  that  when  the 
failure  to  secure  the  necessary  amount  of  cash  subscriptions  to 
the  stock  was  proved,  and  it  became  manifest  that  the  only 
medium  through  which  the  work  could  go  on  was  by  a  con- 
structing company,  which  would  undertake  to  build  the  road 


15 

and  take  the  securities  and  stock  of  the  company  in  payment, 
when  the  whole  enterprise  had  come  to  a  complete  halt  and 
was  set  in  motion  by  my  individual  credit  and  means  and  that 
of  my  associates,  the  enterprise  should  have  been  abandoned. 
Were  it  possible  to  present  that  question  to  the  .same  public 
sentiment,  the  same  state  of  national  opinion,  which  existed 
at  the  time  the  exigency  arose.  I  would  willingly  and  gladly 
go  to  Congress  and  the  country  on  that  issue.  But  1  am  de- 
nied that  justice,  and  the  motives  and  transactions  of  one 
period  are  to  be  judged  by  the  prejudices  of  another,  at  an 
hour  when  the  fluctuations  of  opinion  are  extreme  and  violent, 
beyond  the  experience  of  former  times.  The  actual  cost  in 
money  of  building  the  road  was  about  seventy  millions  of 
dollars,  and  all  statements  of  a  less  cost  are  based  upon  mere 
estimates  of  engineers  who  never  saw  the  work",  and  utterly 
fail  to  grasp  the  conditions  under  which  it  was  prosecuted. 
The  actual  profit  on  this  expenditure,  estimating  the  securities 
and  stock  at  their  market  value  when  received  in  payment,  was 
less  than  ten  million  dollars,  as  can  be  demonstrably  established 
in  any  court.  It  is  in  testimony  before  a  committee  of  the  House 
by  witnesses  who  have  spent  their  lives  as  contractors,  as  well  as 
those  who  have  been  builders,  owners,  ami  operators  of  some 
of  the  great  trunk  lines  of  the  country,  that  for  twenty 
years  past  the  ordinary  method  of  building  railroads  has  been 
through  the  medium  of  constructing  companies;  that  few,  if 
any,  roads  involving  a  large  outlay  of  capital  are  built  in  any- 
other  way;  that  a  profit  of  from  twenty  to  thirty  per  cent,  is 
not  unreasonable  in  any  case,  and  that  upon  the  construction 
of  the  Union  Pacific  railroad,  estimating  it  with  reference  to 
the  magnitude  of  the  work  and  the  risk  incurred,  no  man  could 
reasonably  object  to  a  profit  of  fifty  per  cent.  The  like  evi- 
dence is  given  by  a  Government  director  long  intimately 
acquainted  with  the  manifold  difficulties  and  embarrassments 
encountered,  and  who  has  not  yet  outlived  the  recollection  and 
realization  of  them. 

So  far  as  I  am  pecuniarily  concerned,  it   would  have   been 
better  that  I  had  never  heard  of  the  Union  Pacific   railroad. 


16 

At  its  completion  the  company  found  itself  in  debt  about  six 
millions  of  dollars,  the  burden  of  which  fell  upon  individuals, 
myself  among  others.  The  assumption  of  the  large  portion 
of  this  liability  allotted  to  me,  followed  by  others  necessary 
to  keep  the  road  in  operation  until  there  should  be  developed 
in  the  inhospitable  region  through  which  it  runs  a  business 
affording  revenue  sufficient  to  meet  running  expenses  and  in- 
terest, finally  culminated  in  events  familiar  to  the  public, 
whereby  losses  were  incurred  greatly  in  excess  of  all  profit 
derived  b}r  me  from  the  construction  of  the  road. 

What,  then,  has  the  Government  received  as  the  fruits  of 
the  connection  of  the  Credit  Mobilier  with  the  Union  Pacific 
Railroad  Company  and  the  transactions  now  under  considera- 
tion %  By  the  terms  of  its  charter  it  agreed,  among  other 
things,  to  loan  the  company  for  thirty  years  its  bonds  to  cer- 
tain amounts  per  mile,  and  until  their  maturity  one-half 
the  earnings  on  account  of  Government  transportation  should 
be  retained,  to  bo  applied  in  repayment  to  the  Government  of 
whatever  interest  might  in  the  meantime  be  paid  on  the  bonds 
by  the  United  States.  The  company  in  turn,  by  acceptance  of 
the  charter,  agreed  to  pay  the  United  States  the  amount  due  on 
the  bonds  at  their  maturity  and  to  perform  certain  services. 
Without  asking  additional  legislation,  or  being  called  upon  to 
resist  obnoxious  legislation,  except  wherein  this  contract  had 
been  disregarded  and  ignored  by  the  Government,  the  road 
has  been  completed  and  successfully  operated  throughout  its 
entire  line  now  nearly  four  years. 

ISTo  complaint  has  ever  come  up  from  any  quarter  of  any 
failure  to  faithfully  perform  its  obligations  to  the  Govern- 
ment, both  in  respect  to  transportation  services  and  its  pecu- 
niary obligations.  In  the  only  instance  in  which  it  has  differed 
from  any  department  of  the  Government,  the  variance  has 
been  upon  a  purely  judicial  cpiestion,  upon  which  the  courts 
have  been  open  to  the  United  "States,  but  closed  to  us.  The 
Government  made  itself  the  creditor  of  the  Union  Pacific  Com- 
pany, tying  its  debtor  hand  and  foot  with  a  multiplicity  of 
stipulations,  and  then  refused  to  submit  their  interpretation  to 


17      ' 

its  own  courts.  That  ft  lias  so  far  reaped  tho  principal  benefit 
of  the  bargain  cannot  be  denied.  Official  statements  of  the 
Postmaster-General  are  before  the  House, which  showthatfor 
the  six  years  ending  June  30,  1872,  the  saving  to  the  Govern- 
ment upon  the  transportation  of  postal  matter  alone  by  reason 
of  the  construction  of  the  Union  Pacific  railroad,  assuming 
the  amount  carried  to  be  equal  to  that  transported  previous 
to  its  construction,  has  been  $643,579.55.  But  the  amount  of 
postal  matter  has  been  over  six  times  greater  by  rail  than  by 
stage,  so  that  the  real  saving  is  not  less  than  83,861,477.30. 
Even  this  result  fails  to  represent  the  increased  speed  of  car- 
riage and  convenience  of  handling  and  distribution  afforded  by 
postal  cars  to  the  employees  of  the  department  accompanying 
the  mails,  thus  insuring  safety  and  regularity  in  delivery.  A 
like  statement  from  the  War  Department  shows  the  saving 
upon  military  transportation  for  the  same  time  to  have  been  $6,- 
507,282.85.  No  official  estimates  are  before  the  House  for 
the  saving  upon  transportation  of  Indian  goods,  for  the  Navy 
Department,  or  of  coin  or  currency,  but  they  may  be  safely 
aggregated  at  not  less  than  $2,500,000.  Tin's  gives  a  total 
saving  for  the  six  years  ending  June  30,  1872,  of  the  sum  of 
$12,868,760.15.  The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  in  a  commu- 
nication to  the  House,  bearing  date  May  20,  1872,  in  answer 
to  a  resolution  calling  for  such  information,  estimates  the 
amount  of  interest  and  principal  which  will  be  due  from  the 
Union  Pacific  Railroad  Company  at  the  maturity  of  the  Gov- 
ernment bonds,  at  the  present  rate  of  payment,  at.  $58,156,- 
746.98.  Assuming  that  the  saving  to  the  Government  oi'  all 
the  different  classes  of  transportation  in  the  future  will  be  the 
same  as  in  the  past,  (a  supposition  entirely  on  the  side  of  the 
United  States,  for  it  will  in  fact  increase  in  almost  geometrical 
progression,)  and  the  result  is  a  total  saving  at  the  date  of  the 
maturity  of  the  bonds  of  $04,343, 880. 75,  a  sum  in  excess  of 
the  principal  and  interest  due  at  that  time  to  the  amount  of 
§6,187,053.77.  In  other  words,  il*  at  the  maturity  of  the  bonds 
not  one  cent  of  interest  or  principal  was  paid,  but  on  the  other 
hand  was  entirely  lost,  the  Government  would  be  the  gainer 
in  money  to  the  amount  of  $6,187,053.77. 


18 

All  this  is  solid  gain,  involving  no  consequential  ele- 
ment, and  susceptible  of  exact  computation.  To  attempt 
to  grasp  the  national  benefits  which  lie  outside  the  do- 
main of  figures,  but  are  embodied  in  the  increased  prosperity, 
wealth,  population,  and  power  of  the  nation,  overtasks  the 
most  vivid  imagination.  When  the  rails  were  joined  on 
Promontory  Summit,  May  10,  1869,  the  Pacific  and  the  At- 
lantic, Europe  and  Asia,  the  East  and  the  West,  pledged 
themselves  to  that  perpetual  amity  out  of  which  should  spring 
an  interchange  of  the  most  precious  and  costly  commodities 
known  to  traffic,  thus  assuring  a  commerce  whose  tide  should 
ebb  to  and  fro  across  the  continent  by  this  route  for  ages  to 
come.  Utah  was  then  an  isolated  community,  with  no  indus- 
try but  agriculture,  and  those  manufactures  necessary  to  a 
poor  and  frugal  people.  In  1S72  it  shipped  ten  millions  of 
silver  to  the  money  centres  of  the  world,  and  is  now  demon- 
strated to  be  the  richest  mineral  storehouse  on  the  continent. 
An  institution  repugnant  to  the  moral  sense  of  the  Christian 
world  is  fast  yielding  to  the  civilizing  contact  of  the  outer 
travel  made  possible  by  the  construction  of  the  railway. 
Many  believe  it  has  already  substantially  solved  the  perplex- 
ing problem  of  polygamy.  A  vast  foreign  immigration, 
bringing  with  it  from  Europe  an  immense  aggregate  sum  of 
money,  has  already  been  distributed  far  out  on  the  line  of  the 
road,  and  its  means  and  muscle  arc  fast  subjecting  the  lately 
sparsely -peopled  Territories  of  Colorado,  Wyoming,  Montana, 
and  Idaho  to  the  uses  of  au  enterprising  and  rapidly-increas- 
ing population.  A  steady  and  copious  flow  of  British  capital 
is  pouring  into  the  mines  of  Colorado  and  Utah.  The  In- 
dians have  been  pacified  ;  fruitless  and  costly  hostile  military 
expeditions,  frequent  elsewhere,  have  ceased  in  the  vicinity  of 
its  line,  and  the  facility  and  speed  of  communication  afforded 
by  the  railroad  enables  the  Government  to  offer  adequate  pro- 
tection to  the  frontier  with  a  handful  of  troops,  and,  at  the 
same  time,  dispense  with  large  garrisons  and  fortified  posts, 
hitherto  maintained  at  fabulous  cost.  The  countless  herds  of 
Texas  arc  moving  up  to   occupy  the  grazing  grounds  of  the 


19 

buffalo  in  the  valleys  and  canons  shadowed  by  the  Rocky 
Mountains.  A  region  of  boundless  natural  resources,  lately 
unknown,  unexplored,  and  uninhabited,  dominated  by  sav- 
ages, has  been  reclaimed,  hundreds  of  millions  added  to  the 
wealth  of  the  nation,  and  the  bonds  of  fraternal  and  commer- 
cial union  between  the  East  and  West  strengthened  beyond 
the  power  of  civil  discord  to  sever. 

Does  any  one,  yearning  with  solicitude  lest  the  United 
States,  which  has  made  this  fortunate  bargain,  should  fail  to 
receive  each  cent  due  at  the  precise  moment  it  may  bo  de- 
manded by  its  officers,  doubt  the  ability  of  the  company  to 
perform  its  obligations  and  pay  the  last  dollar  due,  long  before 
the  maturity  of  the  bonds  ?  Four  years  ago  the  road  was 
opened,  without  local  business,  with  no  considerable  through 
traffic,  and  in  the  dawn  of  the  friendly  relations  between  the 
United  States  and  those  Asiatic  nations  which  now  bid  fair  to 
prove  the  source  of  its  largest  and  most  lucrative  business. 
The  conservative  capitalists  of  the  country  believed  it  would 
bankrupt  any  organization  which  undertook  tw  operate  it. 
Four  years  have  reversed  that  opinion,  and  now  the  same  men 
are  putting  forth  their  best  efforts  to  secure  the  benefit  of  a 
close  traffic  connection,  and  perhaps  ultimate  ownership. 
Twenty-four  years  ago  there  was  scarcely  a  mile  of  railroad 
west  of  Lake  Eric,  and  no  connecting  line  west  of  Buffalo. 
Let  him  wdio  would  rightly  estimate  the  future  of  this  com- 
pany go  back  to  the  year  1848,  and,  thenceforward  to  the 
present  time,  trace  the  growth  and  development  of  that  por- 
tion of  the  United  States  lying  west  of  the  great  lakes,  and  he 
will  be  able  to  approximate  the  coming  history  of  the  region 
through  which  this  road  stretches  for  a  thousand  miles,  and  of 
the  trade  and  products  and  commodities  of  which  it  is  to  be 
the  great  commercial  artery.  There  is  but  one  power  that 
can  destroy  its  ability  to  perform  all  its  obligations  to  the 
Government ;  there  is  but  one  agency  that  can  render  it  inca- 
pable of  paying  all  its  indebtedness  to  the  last  dollar — namely, 
the  Congress  of  the  United  States.  It  Jilonc  can  so  cripple, 
weaken,  or  destro}'  the  company,  as  to  make  the  loan  of  the 
Government  to  it  a  total  loss. 


'(o  > 


3 


20 

These,  then,  are  my  offences  :  that  I  have  risked  reputation, 
fortune,  everything,  in  an  enterprise  of  incalculable  benefit  to 
the  Government,  from  -which  the  capital  of  the  world  shrank; 
that  I  have  sought  to  strengthen  the  work,  thus  rashly  under- 
taken, by  invoking  the  charitable  judgment  of  the  public  upon 
its  obstacles  and  embarrassments ;  that  I  have  had  friends, 
some  of  them  in  official  life,  with  whom  I  have  been  willing 
to  share  advantageous  opportunities  of  investment;  that  I  have 
kept  to  the  truth  through  good  and  evil  report,  denying  nothing, 
concealing  nothing,  rescrvingmothing.  Who  will  say  that  I 
alone  am  to  be  offered  up  a  sacrifice  to  appease  a  public  clamor 
or  expiate  the  sins  of  others?  Not  until  such  an  offering  is 
made  will  I  believe  it  possible.  But  if  this  body  shall  so  order 
that  it  can  best  be  purified  by  the  choice  of  a  single  victim,  I 
shall  accept  its  mandate,  appealing  with  unfaltering  confidence 
to  the  impartial  verdict  of  history  for  that  vindication  which 
it  is  proposed  to  deny  me  here. 


\ 


• 


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